Mask Interaction with Sheridan Quigley

Ian Breakwell liked masks, seeing our everyday faces as the masks we construct to face the world. He said that “worn too often, the mask begins to remould the features of the face beneath”. With the macabre humour which is a frequent aspect of his work, he also said that the mask of our face  “becomes so threadbare that is it a mere cowl…loose and  slack like a second skin…or…a taut membrane, too broad a smile would split it”.

I think these are all reflections we would recognise in the many disguises and personas that we present on a daily basis. The mask is for hiding as well as revealing. So, I wanted to make masks with my visitors.

Using a photocopier to to take photos, we worked into the eery images with various media (as Breakwell did) to create masks or reflective portraits, responding to the inadvertent attributes picked up by the machine, such as moisture on the glass showing the pattern of the breath, or the fading of the face backwards into the picture plane.

Funny, strange, ghost-like, reflective, time-capturing. All facets of the inspirational work on show in the galleries.